Video editing on the PC is finally hitting its stride. With ever more powerful machines and DVD burners reaching ever lower price points, it's no wonder that video editing is as hot as image editing became with the explosion in digital photography.

It's also no wonder that Adobe, whose Photoshop line is synonymous with image editing, is trying to stake a similar claim with video. The company has just revamped its Premiere Pro video-editing package and After Effects, its special-effects add-on. It also launched the Encore DVD authoring package, which it had built from the ground up to work with Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop. And it bought audio tool Cool Edit Pro from

Syntrillium Software and rechristened it Audition. That gives Adobe a complete end-to-end solution for Premiere Pro's target audience of corporate and professional videographers and video hobbyists. (To find more choices, see "Video Editing.")

So how well does it all work? We tested all four to find out.